“Human life, beginning at the moment of conception, is sacred in all of its forms and today, I introduced a bill that will protect the lives of voiceless innocents. My legislation will require all physicians, before conducting an abortion, to detect the heartbeat of the unborn child. If a heartbeat is detected, the baby is protected.”

The bill is a direct response to Roe V. Wade, which the Trump administration is looking to overturn, establishing the legal standard for abortion at 24 weeks. The Supreme Court had set that timeline for the gestational viability of a fetus, and a restrictive ban at six weeks would make it very difficult for many women to even realize that they’re pregnant in time to terminate.

While it is unlikely that such a bill will be passed, it does offer a glimpse of what’s to come in the fight for women’s rights.

This is the problem. Abortion has nothing to do with genitals. People against abortion are not inherently against women, sex, or anything like that. The belief that human life is of value is the reason. I would ask anyone who is a parent : did they see a sonogram with a heartbeat and see that as a life? If a woman was pregnant and murdered would her family see it as killing two people?

It’s unfortunate that “pro-life” has been attacked as trying to dictate what people do with their bodies when, in reality, pro abortion people are deciding when lives should be ended. It seems like if someone is trying to dictate what others do, the termination of life seems a bit more extreme. But again, it all comes back to if you could look at your unborn child and say, “nah, they’re not even viable on their own” and be ok with ending that life. And somehow it’s conservatives who are labeled as uncaring by many?

Plus guns can be used for self defense and the death penalty is for those who have committed awful acts. Not very comparable to aborting a baby. Especially when the primary reason for abortion is inconvenience.

No I believe that most abortions are due to the mothers not wanting to be inconvenienced. They don’t want their lives to be changed by having a baby. Perhaps it will change their plans for college, or work, or whatever. So abortions are used, in part, as a way to “fix” the consequences of their actions. Not sure what you mean with the Pakistan comparison.

See, that’s the thing, Joe. Most people who are pro-choice are not pro-abortion. We don’t want women to have abortions. We simply don’t think it’s our place to step in and make what is like the most difficult decision a woman has ever made for her. If the religious right that is so against abortion could guarantee us that the child they’re forcing to be carried to term would be given the resources he or she needs to lead a successful life, you’d face a lot less pushback on abortion bans. If you could promise that the teenager you’re forcing to have a child will have guaranteed pre and post-natal heath care, provide a replacement for all the other women’s health services offered at Planned Parenthood, if you could guarantee that if she was unable to provide for her child and put it up for adoption, that the child wouldn’t just bounce around the foster system likely suffering emotional and physical abuse. If you could guarantee that the mother would be given a proper amount of maternity leave from her job and be guaranteed to still have the job when she came back to work, if you could guarantee a strong public education for the child that included proper sex ed so the cycle of teen pregnancy is broken. Do all of those things, or even most of them, and I can promise there would be a lot less concern over whether abortion is legal.

The problem, Joe, that you’re running into is not that you see all life as sacred. The problem is that the conservative movement seems to stop caring about that child once he or she is born. Pro-choice people see abortion as a terrible compromise to an unwinnable situation. Ironically, it is the conservatives who suddenly want government intervention into the worst decision. You see an abortion clinic and you see a bunch of irresponsible women who don’t want to deal with the consequences of a carefree lifestyle. I see one and I see a bunch of terrified young girls who got themselves into a bad spot, in part because they were never taught in school about condoms and are having to make a choice between terminating a pregnancy and giving themselves a chance at a future or keeping the baby and ensuring that two lives will be stuck in poverty.

The odds are you know a woman who has had an abortion. I suggest you take the chance to talk to her, get to understand where she was coming from and the pain she felt both before and after making the decision. Are there women that have abortions because they’re careless and selfish? Yes. But I can promise you that the number is a lot smaller than you think.